Card eject unit



p 3, 1964 R. WERNIKOWSKI 3,147,701

CARD EJECT UNIT Filed Nov. 20, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet l /NVEN7'0R ROMUS WERNIKOWSKI A T TORNE Y Sept. 8, 1964 R. WERNIKOWSKI CARD EJECT UNIT Filed Nov. 20, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent M 3,147,701 CARD EJECT UNlT Remus Wernikowski, Johnson City, N.Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Nov. 20, 1961, Ser. No. 153,422 4 Claims. (Cl. 101-232) This invention relates to a card eject unit for a card making machine which prints a series of forms on a blank continuous Web of material, the web being cut apart to provide card lengths each having a printed form. More particularly, the card eject unit operates to remove cards made of material having various defects such as tears, holes, slime spots, light or dark spots, etc.

The cards produced by the card making press may be the well-known tabulating cards used in business machines. Cards of this type are commonly punched with holes to place information on the card which is read by a business machine having electrical sensing devices operated in accordance with the pattern of holes in the card, It is readily seen that defects in cards of the kind mentioned may produce errors in reading the cards. For these and other reasons, it is essential that the cards be free of imperfections likely to cause errors in their use.

Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a generally improved and more satisfactory card ejecting device for a card making machine which operates in response to an inspection device for detecting imperfections in the material from which the cards are made.

Another object is the provision of a new and improved card eject unit having faster ejection capabilities than similar units presently in use, for use with high speed card making machines.

A further object is to provide a new and improved card eject unit arranged and constructed to function reliably on card making machines operating at rates of up to 2000 cards per minute.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic elevational view of a portion of a card making press;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the drier Wheel of the press showing the card eject mechanism according to the invention; and

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the mechanism shown in FIG. 2, further including a hopper in which the ejected cards are collected.

The card making press on which the present card ejecting unit is used and constitutes an improvement thereof is described and illustrated in detail in its basic form in U.S. Patent 2,181,935 entitled Tabulating Card Printing Machine and granted December 5, 1939, to F. M. Carroll. Only so much of the printing machine as is essential to the understanding of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1, and the reader is directed to the foregoing Carroll patent for further description. Basically a supply roll of card stock precut to the desired card width is mounted on the press and the free end is unrolled to provide a continuous web 11 of blank material. The web 11 is fed upwardly in the machine between a pair of rollers 13 and 15 which constitute a printing couple. That is, the roller 13 may be a type roller while the other roller 15 may be a cylindrical platen, and as the web 11 passes through the printing couple successive duplicate impressions of card forms are made on one side of the web. A web having the cutter rollers 17 and 19 for cutting the web material 3,147,701 Patented Sept. 8, 1964 transversely into record card lengths, each with a printed form. The printing rollers 13 and 15 may correspond to the rollers 74 and 75 of the aforementioned Carroll patent, while the cutter rollers 17 and 19 may correspond to the rollers designated by numerals and 103a in FIG. 1 of the patent.

The cut and printed cards 23 are carried upwardly out of the cutter rollers 17 and 19 to a fluted guide not here shown into a position of approximate tangency with the rim of a drier or carrier wheel 21 rotating in a counterclockwise direction. The upper end of each of the newly cut cards 23 is releasably held to the rim of the wheel 21 by a clip to be described later and is carried around by the wheel approximately 270 to be deposited in a stacking mechanism at the other side of the wheel which is not shown in this diagrammatic drawing. While traveling with the wheel 21, the printed forms on the cards dry sufficiently so that the cards may be stacked one upon the other without smudging.

The record form card which has been described may be the well known tabulating card or similar type of card used in various business machines such as accounting machines and data processing machines. Such a card requires both precision and quality manufacture, particularly when it is used in business machines where it is sensed by electrical means. Paper stock from which these cards are made is carefully selected, however, it is also necessary to inspect the card for various defects which may affect its performance in use. This inspection desirably includes pre-sensing the stock by electrical means for discovering conductive specks or particles and holes or tears in the stock which might result in errors if permitted to remain in the finished record card. Other types of imperfections, commonly known as slime spots appear in record cards, but as these spots are not conductive they are not sensed by the normal electrical presensing of the paper stock. Frequently a slime spot does not contribute to business machine error until the record card has been used in the machine a few times. Slime spots appearas blisters in the paper stock for the record cards and consist, for the most part, of brittle areas caused by particles of fermented paper fibers forming on the paper manufacturing machinery and becoming embedded in the paper stock. After the web is cut to form record cards and particularly after these cards are fed through card feeding mechanisms, the blisters may rupture and holes may result which are equivalent to card perforations, thereby providing a source of false card data or perhaps bringing about a jam of the record cards being fed.

For these various reasons it is necessary that the web stock of which the record cards are made be preinspected carefully to assure the quality of the finished cards. Usually the electrical pre-sensing is performed before the supply roll of webmaterial is installed in the printing machine. The inspection device for slime spots is on the other hand normally mounted on the printing machine itself in advance of the printing rollers 13 and 15. Various inspection devices or speck detectors may be used, and the invention is not limited to any particular type of inspection device. A photoelectric inspection device of the type described in US. Patent 2,617,048 to J. L. Wagner et al., granted November 4, 1952, may be used conveniently. This device comprises basically a source of light 25 mounted on one side of the web and a detector 27 on the other side of the Web in alignment. The detector 27 comprises a second light source and a pair of photoelectric cells for detecting the amount of light transmitted through the web by the first source 25 and reflected from the second source in the detector device 27. When a dark or light colored slime spot, or a tear in the stock or a hole passes by the speck detector 25, 27, an

amplifier 29 coupled to the detector energizes a card eject unit 31 adjacent the drier Wheel 21 to eject that particular card from the drier wheel which is made of the imperfect web material. The time constants of the electrical and mechanical components are correlated such that a slime spot or other defect detected in the Web 11 at the speck detector 25, 27 is eliminated by the ejection of the record card 23 then containing it as the drier wheel 21 presents the card to the ejector device 31.

Referring to FIG. 2, the drier or carrier wheel 21 includes a continuous rim 33 to which are attached a plurality of circumferentially spaced card clips 35. The clips 35 are similar to the clips 144 in the previously mentioned Carroll patent, and each clip comprises a plate like body member having a bent up trailing end to facilitate entrance of the card 23 between this body member and the rim of the drier wheel. The forward end of the body plate has a pair of struck up projections 37 to deflect the previous card outwardly away from the wheel, and a pair of-radially bent ears 39 straddle the rim and are secured thereto by a spring not here shown which tends to pivot the trailing or counterclockwise end of the body plate into engagement with the rim of the wheel, to clamp a card securely in place. The clip 35 further has a circumferentially directed extension 41 at one side of the rim having an inwardly directed radial tail which is engageable by a fixed lug not here shown as the wheel 21 rotates to pivot the trailing end of the body plate upwardly to receive a card as it comes through the cutter rollers and the guides. The clip 35 by this action is momentarily raised as the card is inserted beneath the body plate, and the card 23 becomes releasably clamped by the clip when the extension 41 is disengaged and the clip is automatically moved to clamping position by its spring.

The card eject unit 31 providing the subject matter of this invention as previously mentioned is connected to the amplifier 29 by a pair of leads 43 and 45. The card eject unit 31 comprises essentially an electromagnet 47 having a pole face 49, the electromagnet being mounted on a yoke 51. An elongated bar like armature 53 is pivoted at one end to the yoke 51 and is normally biased away from the pole face 49 by a spring 55 connected to the yoke. Secured to the opposite end of the armature 53 (see also FIG. 3) is an interposer pin 57. The interposer pin 57 is oriented approximately radially with respect to the wheel 21 and has axial movement when the electromagnet is energized.

The card eject unit 31 is mounted to one side of the rotating drier wheel 21 just inwardly of the outer edge of the rim 33 of the wheel, and the interposer pin in its normal rest position is out of engagement with the leading portion of the cards 23. The cards 23 of course are moving in a circular path and it is further noted that the width of the cards is greater than the width of the rim 33 so that the left side of the cards as seen in FIG. 3 project beyond the wheel. Upon energization of the electromagnet 47, the armature 53 pivots into engagement with its pole face 49, moving the tip of the interposer pin 57 radially outward into the path of motion of the leading corner edge portions of the cards 23 on the drier wheel 21. Consequently when the electromagnet is energized to raise the interposer pin 57 momentarily, the forward edge of the next card 23 rotating on the rim of the drier wheel 21 is struck by the pin and pivoted in its respective clip as it tends to be disengaged therefrom. As best seen in FIG. 3, the rear corner of the card diagonally opposite from that engaged by the interposer pin 57 is pivoted into engagement with a pair of eject rollers 59 and 61.

The rollers 59 and 61 are made of rubber or the like and have tangential engagement so that the card 23 is drawn between them away from the wheel 21 when the rollers are rotating in opposite directions. The rollers 59 and 61 are respectively secured to the reduced ends of a pair of parallel mounted shafts 63 and 65. The shafts 63 and 65 have a smaller diameter than that of the rollers 59 and 61, and a card coming ofi of the drier wheel 21 tends to be deflected into the space between the two shafts. The shafts 63 and 65 extend in cantilever fashion from a mounting box 67 containing a suitable gear arrangement for driving the shafts in opposite direction from a single source of power. Conveniently a motor 69 drives one of the shafts, and the gear arrangement drives the other shaft in the opposite direction at the same rate of speed. The eject rollers together with their drive means are mounted in any suitable manner upon the press, this detail not being shown in the drawing. Upon being drawn through the rollers 59 and 61, the ejected card is received in a hopper 71.

The card eject unit 31 is mounted upon the card making machine in any convenient manner, and as here shown the unit is mounted upon one end of a bracket 73 which extends across the rim 33 of the drier wheel 21 radially outwardly thereof to be secured at its other end upon another upright bracket 75. The bracket 75 corresponds to the bracket 153 in FIG. 10 of the aforementioned Carroll patent and is used to mount a card curl correction device shown and more particularly described in that patent. Briefly, this device comprises a horizontal bar 77 secured at one end to the bracket 75 while its other end carries a rotatable screw 79. A U-shaped bracket 81 is mounted on the rod 77 and screw 79 to be adjustable sidewardly by turning the screw 79. Extending upwardly from the bracket 81 is a casing 83 on which is pivoted a downwardly extending wire 85. The lower end of the wire 85 is engageable by those of cards 23 having an outward curl greater than that desired, pivoting the wire 85 and engaging its upper end with a contact 87. When the movable contact 87 swings too far to the left, it engages a fixed contact 89 which completes an electrical circuit to a device on the press not here shown for correcting the curvature of the web material fed upwardly into the printing rollers 13 and 15. This web curvature adjusting device comprises the plate 39 and the straightener block 45 described in the Carroll patent.

It is evident from the foregoing discussion that a slime spot, hole, tear or other imperfections in the web material for making the cards is detected by the speck detector device 25, 27 which sends a pulse to the amplifier 29. The pulse is relayed to the card eject unit 31 to energize the electromagnet 47 and pivot the armature 53 into contact with the pole face 49, thus raising the interposer pin 57 so that its tip projects into the path of movement of the leading corner of one of a selected card 23. The time and mechanical constants of the system are arranged to project the interposer pin 57 into the path of the card made of the defective material sensed by the said detector 25, 27. The interposer pin 57 in projected operative position engages one corner of the selected card 23 to pivot its diagonallly opposite corner into the space between the eject rollers 59 and 61. The card is thus drawn between the rollers 59 and 61 and deposited in the reject hopper 71.

The particular advantage of the card ejector unit herein described is its high speed of operation, making it adaptable for use with current high speed card making presses. The eject unit operates satisfactorily on a press making cards at the rate of 2000 per minute. The positive removal of the cards from the wheel 21 by the continuously rotating eject rollers 59 and 61 contributes to its eflicient operation.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a card making machine for manufacturing cards from a continuous supply of web material, said machine including means for cutting said web material into cards of unit length and a rotatable carrier wheel having a plurality of circumferentially spaced clips on its periphery for releasably fastening the leading ends of the newly cut cards into the wheel, and further including inspection means located in advance of said cutting means for creating an electrical signal upon detecting an imperfection in said web material, the improvement comprising a card eject unit mounted at one side of the carrier wheel and including interposer means normally biased to a position out of engagement with the cards, a pair of rollers rotating in engagement in opposite directions, said pair of rollers being disposed on the other side of said carrier wheel, and means acting in response to the electrical signal from said inspection means for projecting said interposer means to be engaged by a leading corner edge portion of a selected card upon further rotation of the carrier wheel, thereby pivoting the diagonally opposite rear corner of the selected card away from the carrier wheel to be engaged by said pair of rollers and drawn therethrough.

2. In a card making machine for manufacturing cards from a continuous supply of web material, said machine including rollers for printing record forms on said web materials and other rollers for cutting said web material into cards of unit length each having a printed form thereon, a rotatable drier wheel having a plurality of circumferentially spaced clips on its periphery for releasably clamping the newly cut cards to the wheel, and inspection means located in advance of the printing rollers for creating an electrical signal upon detecting an imperfection in said web material, the improvement comprising a card eject unit mounted at one side of said drier wheel and including an interposer pin disposed approximately radially with respect thereto, said interposer pin being normally biased out of engagement with the cards, a pair of rollers disposed on the other side of said drier wheel and rotating substantially in engagement with one another in opposite directions, and means acting in response to the electrical signal from said inspection means for projecting said interposer pin axially to be engaged by a leading corner edge portion of a selected card upon further rotation of the drier wheel, thereby pivoting the diagonally opposite rear corner of the selected card away from the drier wheel to be engaged between said pair of rollers and drawn therethrough for deposition in a reject hopper.

3. A card eject unit for a card making machine including a rotatable carrier wheel having a rim and a plurality of circumferentially spaced clips mounted thereon for releasably clamping the leading ends of the cards to the rim of the Wheel, the width of the cards being greater than the width of the rim and said cards having a circular path of motion when clamped thereto, said eject unit being mounted at one side of said wheel and including interposer means movable into and out of the path of motion of the cards, means for normally biasing said interposer means out of the path of motion of the cards, a pair of rollers disposed on the other side of said carrier wheel and rotating in engagement in opposite directions, and means for moving said interposer means into the path of motion of a leading corner edge portion of a selected card to be struck thereby upon further rotation of the carrier wheel, pivoting the diagonal corner thereof toward said pair of rollers while tending to release the said selected card from its respective clip, said selected card being drawn between the rotating pair of rollers to eject the card.

4. A card eject unit for a card making machine including a rotatable carrier wheel having a rim and a plurality of circumferentially spaced clips mounted thereon for releasably clamping the cards to the wheel, the width of the cards being greater than the width of the rim and said cards having a circular path of motion when clamped thereto, said eject unit being mounted to one side of said Wheel inwardly of the rim and including an interposer pin movable approximately radially with respect to the wheel into and out of the path of motion of the cards, means for normally biasing said interposer pin to a rest position out of the path of motion of the cards, means for moving said interposer pin axially into the path of motion of a leading corner edge portion of a selected card to be struck thereby upon further rotation of the carrier wheel, pivoting the diagonally opposite rear corner thereof away from the wheel while tending to release the said selected card from its respective clip, and a pair of rollers disposed on the other side of said carrier wheel and rotating in engagement in opposite directions, said rollers being located to engage the pivoted diagonal corner of the card and draw the selected card therethrough to eject the card.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,208,465 Boreham Dec. 12, 1916 1,557,944 Reisbach Oct. 20, 1925 2,617,048 Wagner et a1 Nov. 4, 1952 2,771,029 Carroll Nov. 20, 1956 2,971,414 Owen Feb. 14, 1961 3,008,709 Buslik Nov. 14, 1961 

1. IN A CARD MAKING MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING CARDS FROM A CONTINOUS SUPPLY OF WEB MATERIAL, SAID MACHINE INCLUDING MEANS FOR CUTTING SAID WEB MATERIAL INTO CARDS OF UNIT LENGTH AND A ROTATABLE CARRIER WHEEL HAVING A PLURALITY OF CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SPACED CLIPS ON ITS PERIPHERY FOR RELEASABLY FASTENING THE LEADING ENDS OF THE NEWLY CUT CARDS INTO THE WHEEL, AND FURTHER INCLUDING INSPECTION MEANS LOCATED IN ADVANCE OF SAID CUTTING MEANS FOR CREATING AN ELECTRICAL SIGNAL UPON DETECTING AN IMPERFECTION IN SAID WEB MATERIAL, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING A CARD EJECT UNIT MOUNTED AT ONE SIDE OF THE CARRIER WHEEL AND INCLUDING INTERPOSER MEANS NORMALLY BIASED TO A POSITION OUT OF ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CARDS, A PAIR OF ROLLERS ROTATING IN ENGAGEMENT IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS, SAID PAIR OF ROLLERS BEING DISPOSED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF SAID CARRIER WHEEL, AND MEANS ACTING IN RESPONSE TO THE ELECTRICAL SIGNAL FORM SAID INSPECTION MEANS FOR PROJECTING SAID INTERPOSER MEANS TO BE ENGAGED BY A LEADING CORNER 